PAN: A primary school was bombed from the air during an operation against militants in the Barak-i-Barak district of central Logar province, killing two students and injuring four others, including a teacher. Logar education director Mohammad Akbar Stanikzai told Pajhwok Afghan News the school was hit about 9am in the Jalozo area. Full news...

The Killid Group: Many hundreds of people have been armed along the border, and their numbers are growing. The police commander of Kunduz has posted a video on a social network site of armed men in national dress saying they would soon recapture the Gultapa area from the government’s opponents. While local authorities are all for the strategy, there are serious misgivings among people. Full news...

The Daily Beast: The Hazaras stand apart in Afghanistan. Their ethnic appearance is disctinct, and theirs is a Shiite faith in a Sunni-majority country. They are one of the three big ethnic groups, but theirs is a long history of persecution that has included massacres and cultural losses such as the destruction of the centuries-old Buddha statues of Bamiyan... Full news...

The Wall Street Journal: Five years ago, photographer Gabriela Maj met Fareshte, an inmate of Badam Bagh women’s prison, while on assignment in Afghanistan. At the time, Fareshte had been incarcerated and was awaiting two sentences related to so-called moral crimes. Full news...

PAN: The Parchaman district’s administrative head is involved in killing and torturing several civilians, besides extorting cash from the people, residents of western Farah province allege. More than 3,000 families have allegedly been forced into migrating from Parchaman owing to the strong-arm tactics of the district chief, Mohammad Daud Mobarez, and his supporters. Full news...

ANI: At least five people have been killed and 62 injured in a suicide bomb explosion in Afghanistan’s southern Zabul Province, said authorities. According to the Dawn, council director Atta Jan Haqbayan said that a blast took place at the gate of the provincial council’s compound in provincial capital Kalat. Full news...

AP: Taliban gunmen surrounded a police compound in the volatile southern province of Helmand after killing 19 policemen and seven soldiers in an ongoing siege, a senior police officer said on Monday from inside the compound. Napas Khan, the police chief in the Naw Zad district, told The Associated Press by telephone that the insurgents had advanced to within 65 feet of the compound... Full news...

The Killid Group: Code 91 is a part of the budget that the president has complete control over, and to be used in case of emergency. But money has been withdrawn against the signature of previous president Hamid Karzai in the last financial year for disbursal among Members of Parliament (MPs), senators, high-ranking government authorities, his advisers and office. Very little has gone into the pockets of the poor. Full news...

PAN: Unidentified men lobbed hand grenade on a wedding party in the Ankhoy district of northern Faryab province, leaving 15 persons, with some of them critically wounded, the district chief said on Friday. Sultan Sanjar told Pajhwok Afghan News that the wedding ceremony of the son of Noor Mohammad, director revenue of the district, was attacked with a hand grenade in the Qorghan area. Full news...

The Killid Group: Sixty percent of Afghan workers are jobless, and those who are employed rarely have the assurance of regular working hours in a safe environment. Maroof Qaderi, the head of the Labour Union of Afghanistan says ILO (International Labour Organisation) and CSO (Central Statistic Office) figures show 12 million people qualify as workers in the country. Full news...

The Guardian: Eleven police officers have been sentenced to one year in prison for their role in the mob lynching of a woman in Kabul that caused outrage in Afghanistan and abroad. A primary court judge found the officers guilty of dereliction of duty, while acquitting another eight due to lack of evidence. The verdict has exasperated Afghans who had hoped to see the government make political strides in defence of women’s rights. Full news...

Al Jazeera: At least five people have been killed by a bomb in the parking lot of Afghanistan’s justice ministry building in Kabul, according to several officials. Reuters news agency confirmed citing Sediq Sediqqi, spokesperson for the interior ministry, that five people were dead and several more wounded in Tuesday’s blast. Full news...

Spiegel Online: His war only lasted from one dawn to the next. When the sun rose for the second time over the Syrian city of Aleppo, Murad, a farmer from Afghanistan, was still cowering on the second floor of the house he was supposed to defend to the death. That, at least, is what his Iranian officer had ordered him to do. Full news...

TOLOnews.com: Two young sisters were among those killed. Relatives of the two girls, who were on their way to school when the attack took place, spoke out on Monday about their plight, pleading for financial assistance in order to pay for a proper funeral for their murdered loved ones. Full news...

The Wall Street Journal: The Taliban claimed responsibility for a car bomb that detonated Sunday morning on a crowded road near Afghanistan’s main international airport, hitting a vehicle of the European Union’s police advisory mission and killing three people, Afghan and international officials said. Sediq Sediqqi, the spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Interior, said the explosion occurred on Hawa Shanasi road, a street close to a military entrance to the airport. Full news...

Khaama Press: The Taliban militants have abducted dozens of Passengers from eastern Paktia province of Afghanistan, local officials said. The officials further added that the passengers were abducted while they were travelling in Syed Karam district early on Saturday morning. Full news...

Los Angeles Times: Taking office in September, President Ashraf Ghani pledged to fight corruption and end more than a decade of war with the Taliban and its allies. Instead, Ghani’s unity government has faced a series of stiff military and economic challenges that have led to increasing disenchantment after the first peaceful transfer of power in Afghanistan’s modern history. Full news...

The Guardian: In November 2008, an Estonian minister by the name of Harri Tiido was being given a tour of Helmand province. Estonians were stationed in Nawzad, which had once been a town of 30,000 people, but was now deserted, “with the two sides dug into first world war-type trenches with their lines 300 yards apart”. After receiving the usual PowerPoint briefing, Tiido was asked by his British hosts if he had any questions: “I have only one,” he said. “What the fuck are we doing here?” Full news...

Al Jazeera: Afghanistan’s poppy fields are thriving, with cultivation of the crop hitting record highs last year. Poppy produces opium, the main ingredient in heroin. Already, the country supplies 90 percent of the world’s heroin, leading to tens of thousands of deaths every year. Not only is Afghanistan the global leader in opium production, but Afghans are now the leading consumers of their own drugs. Full news...

TOLOnews.com: A 21-year-old girl who was gang raped about a year ago in central Bamyan province has arrived in capital Kabul to demand justice after what she said her call for justice was not listened by the provincial authorities. Bas Gul, resident of Waras district, told TOLOnews that one of the three rapists has been released from the jail. Full news...

The Killid Group: Afghanistan is caught in a cycle. Few girls go to school. Fewer women become teachers. Social restrictions, insecurity and a severe shortage of female teachers continue to pose a challenge. The Ministry of Education (MoE) says 15 percent of female students drop out of school. The UN children’s agency UNICEF says 3 million Afghan children have never been inside a school; 60 percent are girls. At least 500 schools are closed across the country because of security threats. Full news...

Al Jazeera America: Afghanistan is in the grips of a drug epidemic that some say is far more dangerous than the Taliban. And those behind the trade remain defiant in the face of efforts to rid the country of their presence. “They’ll never stop us. You see, we’ve tasted the profits, so we’ll never let go,” said one smuggler when asked whether the government would ever be able to stop the illegal business. Full news...

TOLOnews.com: At least two children were killed and four other civilians wounded in Ghazni province, officials said Thursday. The provincial acting-governor’s spokesman Shafiq Nang confirmed the incident and said that the blast occurred on Wednesday in Deh Yak district when a civilian vehicle hit by a roadside mine. Full news...

PAN: An adult has been arrested for allegedly raping a five-year old boy in northern Faryab province, an official said on Wednesday. Police official Maj. Muhammad Yusuf told Pajhwok Afghan News the incident took place in Maimana, the provincial capital and that the alleged rapist had been arrested. Full news...

The Guardian: Seventeen months after Setara’s husband cut her face and chest with a knife, disfiguring her for life and only narrowly failing to kill her, the laws of her native Afghanistan have still not allowed her to divorce him. The reason is not because anyone disputes what happened to her. Full news...

VOA News: Afghan officials have confirmed at least 16 soldiers are dead and more than a dozen wounded after a Taliban attack in a northeastern border region. An unspecified number of soldiers are missing after the assault late Sunday in the remote Badakhshan province. The Taliban insurgents reportedly seized weapons, several tanks and vehicles. Full news...

TOLOnews.com: Three of the five passengers in a car who were kidnapped Thursday evening in southern Zabul have been found dead, acting governor of Zabul told TOLOnews on Saturday. Mohammad Ashraf Nasiri said the bodies were found Saturday morning in Qalat district, provincial capital of Zabul, where the passengers were abducted. Full news...

PAN: On Labour Day, hundreds of labourers on Friday staged a protest demonstration in the capital Kabul, demanding work opportunities. The rally was organized by the National Labour Union aimed at pressing the government to increase wages of labourers. Mohammad Maroof Qadari, the NLU leader, asked the government to implement labour laws, increase salaries of government officials and facilitate workers. Full news...

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